next 30... 30 things about me and dave

1.) there are 8 years between dave and i
2.) my parents used to do bible study at his parents house. him and his brother were in charge of watching us little kids
3.) one bible study night i remember telling dave i could tie my shoes with my eyes shut
4.) after that i dont think i spoke another word to him til i was in highschool and he was a leader in the youth group
5.) we still didnt talk much, i was super shy and he was always the guy in front of everyone
6.) dave and my dad became accountability partners dave was around our house more and more.
7.) we would always give me a hard time, one time he made my cry and i screamed at him. i think i scared him :)
8.) around the time i went away to college, his parents moved to tn to start a christian camp, so he took my place at the poirier home. i remember calling home numerous times and dave answering the phone telling me how good the dinner was that my mom had made him, while i ate mac and cheese.
9.) when i would come home from school i would hang out with dave, all my other friends went to school in a different state.
10.) he would take me on motorcycle rides and to the beach, but i was trying REALLY had not to fall for him. he was super friendly to a lot of girls and they all fell for him and when he realized he RAN. :)
11.) after a long time on praying on his part (like 9 months), he talked to my dad and asked if it was ok for us to date. my dad was thrilled. so he told me he liked me, i didnt talk to him for 2 weeks!! i was so SCARED!
12.) dave is a great communicator so he made me talk out my feelings. we both ended up with terrible stomach problems through those two weeks. he had an usler and i had a kidney stone.
ha ha... this makes me laugh now thinking back on it.
13.) when we were both sick we took our first of many road trips together. we went to Deleware to run paintball for his unlce.
14.) after 6 months of dating, he asked me to marry him on the day after christmas in Tn.
15.) the proposed by a campfire on his land in TN. there was a little old shed we took shelter in. it was freezing, he wrote a poem and then asked me to marry him. we call this spot the "love shack" now.
16.) 5 months after that we got married. June 10, 2000.
17.) it was a huge party, tons of people. we did it on a really tight and good budget that i am really proud of.

ok so now for some pics. these are in no particular order....

18.) we celebrated our 8th anniversary last summer.
19.) dave has had his private pilots lisence now for a year. we rent this plane and go for little trips some times. here we are in raleigh visiting the dews.
20.) we moved to Tn in Feb 2005 to help his parents run the camp. www.lviewranch.com
21.) dave is a great skiier. he is always pulling me off my skis and throwing me up in his shoulders or something crazy like that.
22.) sebring FL is our favorite vacation spot. been going there since i was like 10.


23.) dave has become a turkey hunter now that we live in TN. we actually ate a wild bird for thanksgiving this year and it was really yummy. we cooked it on the grill on the rostisseri. 24.) dave and i have always gone crazy with halloween costumes. garrets first year he was a pirate. 2nd year he was a shepherd, we made little sheep and then rigged up this belt that made it look like the sheep were following him. next year he was jonah in the whale and rae was a minnow, the next year he was a robot and rae was a cow girl, and last year the girls were butterflies and he was the butterfly catcher. fun times....

25.) i LOVE this pic of just the 3 us before the girls were born, just had to throw it in.
26.) dave has a motorcycle. i love to ride with him. never tried riding myself, dont really care to. one time he asked me to move it over in the garage and it fell on me! not good.
26.) this was our first house in florida. loved this place it was so artsy and cool!
27.) when we first got married we lived in a one bed apartment in Boca Manor. loved that little place, it was perfect for us. it was close to everything we walked a lot of places
28.) then we moved down the hall to a two bedroom apartment so dave could have an office.
29.) when we first moved to tn we lived in a double wide out by the camp. we did lots of work to it. it was huge and the kids had so much room to play in there. then in May of 2007 we moved into town to be closer to church and school and friends. we love it here.

30.) and really random pic at the end.... this picture was taken the day we found out we were pregnant with raelyn.

first 25... 25 things about the kids

1. garret is so strong, it blows me away the physical strength this boy has.
2. he is doing pretty good in kindergarten although he finds it really hard to stay focused.
3. he loves to eat at Pizza Inn
4. he loves to eat anything really!
5. raelyn loves to do whatever her brother does
6. so that means she loves Pizza Inn too
7. however she wont eat anything, she is much more picky
8. raelyn has the most amazing eyes i have ever seen
9. she had to much hair when she was born we called her tina turner
10. i had all my babies with no pain meds!
11. brenna is sweet as can be
12. i felt like i was totally in control of my body when i gave birth to her. it was an amazing experience.
13. i was REALLY sick right before she was born
14. i wasnt due for another week but my mom came into town to help me get better and take care of the other kids, the day she was supposed to head back home, i went into labor.
15. it was great to have her here, gods timing is perfect.
16. brenna sucks her thumbs, garret took a pacifier, and raelyn did neither. she wouldnt even take a bottle.
17. it is amazing to me how different my kids are.... i hate when people say the raise all their kids the same way, of course that wont work, the kids are all different, you have to raise them according to their needs
18. raelyn called daves motorcyle a "roller coaster" the other day
19. brenna is talking so much these days and picks up a new word each day
20. garret knows 78 out of 90 site words we have been working on since the beginning of the year
21. raelyn loves for me to read her stories. she memorizes most of them.
22. the state of tennessee has this amazing book club called the Imagination Library. each month the kids get a new hard cover book for free until they are 5 years old. it is so fun for me to go to the mailbox and see a new book.
23. garret and brenna share a room b/c raelyn is a night owl and would keep brenna up all night
24. all the kids wake up to early for me.
25. i really cant believe i have three kids to be honest. it is way harder than i ever thought it would be. i think discipline is my biggest challenge. i didnt have a clue that it would be all day everyday, correcting and redirecting, but God is good and he promises to never give me more than i can handle. (well at least he sends dave home just in time :)

100 post

oh man, i just hit my 100th post! so a few of my friends blogged 100 things about themselves when they hit this mark. i am feeling kind of overwhelmed by that. i will have to break it up for sure. we will see if you actually get 100 things out of me....

picnic and finished desk!

today we had some friends come over and enjoy our backyard with us. we all brought our own lunch and hung out while the kids played. the sun felt SO good on our skin.

beautiful mary elizabeth
amy and her kids clara and hudson... i love how garret is checking out the crying baby :)
big girl!
peanut butter face
AND the FINISHED DESK! i love it, love it! i am excited to get a few accessories for it and maybe an old stool. i am sitting at it right now. it is so nice. thanks again dave.

a close up of how dave built it, the shelves are all inter locking, not just nailed together.

dirty

the weather is getting nicer so we have been outside playing the last couple of days. brenna found the pots of dirt and had a good old time. this is something i have a constant battle with. i love to have flowers and a garden but the kids always seem to stomp them, pick them, or dump them. i guess the dirt is just to tempting :) i remember making mud pies as a kid in the backyard. however i didnt use the dirt from my moms flower pots ( not that i remember anyways, mom may have a different story)

while you were out...

my birthday was on wednesday, i did my normal wed routine. went to the Y to work out and then to help in garrets class and sit with him while he eats lunch. then i met some friends at a girly little sandwich shop. it was so nice. it has been a long time since i have had such good friends. i am so thankful for the ladies the lord has put in my life right now.

so while i was out all morning, dave was surpising me with a new desk for the kitchen. in order to put the desk where i wanted it, dave had to close off the wall. in doing this, i feel like we have a real bedroom now. (there used to be a door way that lead from our bedroom to the kitchen, not very private.)

so here is the desk. i have been working on painting it a teal color. dave did such a good job building it. he is so talented. 90% of the wood he used is from trees from the camp! ok so i will post more pics once it is painted.

feb painting

this picture is really not good at all, but here is the painting i worked on in February.